VULNERABILITY is not a word which fits easily into any description of the makeup of Ireland's favourite athlete, Sonia O'Sullivan. Seven years spent at the sharp end of one of sport's more competitive disciplines is the proof that, even when the hard questions cannot be ducked and character is on the line, she measures up with the best of her trade.
And yet, undeniably, the wages of Atlanta and a terrible week that tugged on the emotion of an entire country have left their mark. O'Sullivan, the supreme competitor who was regarded the world over as something of a running machine, is now perceived as mortal. And very, very vulnerable.
That's not an admission she cares to make. But the connotations were readily identifiable after she had arrived in Paris for the sixth World Indoor Championships which start today.
In terms of popularity, not a lot has changed. She is still regarded as one of the sport's more personable celebrities, still courted by the international press for the quotable quote. But still, the persona, post-Atlanta, is different. From a situation in which she oozed self-confidence, she now seems to invite reassurance. Suddenly, even the basics are liable to be called into question.
"After the Olympics, it was a question of looking at everything anew and starting all over again," she said. "That's a process which begins here in Paris and will continue right through to the world outdoor championships in Athens next August."
It hasn't all been doom and gloom, however, and in tracing the silver lining to the debacle of Atlanta, she points to the different level of expectation among her supporters.
"I suppose there was a time when they expected me to win every time I stepped on a track. That of course, was unrealistic, but having seen what happened in America, they now know only too well that things can go very wrong for even the strongest favourites."
And there are other variations from the norm - like living quarters. Chastened by the lessons of last summer, she is now staying with the other members of the Irish team at a downtown hotel.
Even more surprisingly, the blueblood of the track is ready to take advantage of the new financial inducements now being offered by the IAAF in all areas of athletics (this is the first World Indoor Championships to offer prize money) and make herself available for the World Cross Country Championships in Turin at the end of the month.
It means that BLF officials are now almost certain to rescind an earlier decision and agree to send a women's team to Italy at a meeting of the management committee in Dublin this evening.
O'Sullivan's attempt to follow in the footsteps of Frank O'Mara and her namesake, Marcus, in winning world indoor titles, has to be set against the fact that she has not run competitively on boards for the last five years. But that omission, she describes, as largely irrelevant.
Like Sinead Delahunty, however, she confessed to some disappointment after learning that today's scheduled semi-finals of the 3,000 metres had been scrapped because of insufficient entries. The championship will now be decided in one race tomorrow evening at 6.55 (Irish time).
While O'Sullivan and Delahunty regarded the challenge of doubling up in the 1,500 and 3,000 metres as impractical, the Romanian Gabriele Szabo is gambling on running both. It means that she will have a rest off just two hours between running the heats of the 1,500 metres and the finals of the 3,000 metres tomorrow.
First of the Irish in action today will be Nenagh's Gary Ryan who has set himself a personal target of eclipsing his own national record of 21.51 seconds when he goes in the heats of the 200 metres, starting at 9.20 this morning.
He will be followed later in the day by Mark Carroll (3,000 metre heats - 10.05 a.m.), David Matthews and James Nolan (800 metre heats - 4.30 p.m.) and Niall Bruton who reports to the start line for the heats of the 1,500 metres at 6.35 p.m.
Bruton, a fine talent who hasn't always delivered in championship competition, is looking for a big improvement on his recent runs, but that remark is scarcely valid of Nolan whose impressive rate of progression makes him a worthy partner for Matthews at 800 metres. Ominously, however, this event has attracted one of the heaviest entries of all.
In all, 733 athletes from 121 countries are assembled here for the championships - testimony to the powerful motivating qualities of prize money. Among them is the Trinidadian Ato Bolton who seeks to become the first to win the 60 and 200 metres titles at the same championship.
Freed for once of the intimidating spectre of Michael Johnson, Donovan Bailey and Freddie Fredericks, Bolton has the form and the confidence to see off the defending champion, Bruny Surin, of Canada and the reinstated British athlete Jason Livingstone in the 60 metres final, timed for 7.00 p.m.
Gail Devers, the popular American, must legislate for the presence of Russia's Irina Privalova who goes in the 60 metres off the back of a sequence of outstanding performances in indoor competition this winter.
At the other end of the spectrum, Haile Gebrselassiie, the astounding Ethiopian, promises another memorable run in the 3,000 metres after becoming the first to break 13 minutes for the 5,000 metres at Stockholm a fortnight ago.
History will recall that as one of the great runs of recent times and it has prompted speculation of another performance to savour when Gebrselassie, without the assistance of a pacemaker on this occasion, bids to rewrite another record.
